In a case of only-in-Chicago political timing, the White House announced Monday it would honor Ald. Joe Moore as a “pioneer for political reform,” the same day the veteran City Council member revealed he has spoken to FBI agents about allegations he improperly paid two aides he fired.

The accusations involving the ex-employees surfaced in a report from Legislative Inspector General Faisal Khan, one of several cases of alleged aldermanic wrongdoing the council’s watchdog highlighted.

Khan contends that Moore, who has represented Rogers Park since 1991, fired a woman in 2009 after she complained about political work being done in his ward office in violation of city laws. The report says Moore, 49th, paid the woman $8,709 — the equivalent of three-and-a-half months salary, and told her not to speak to anyone about the political activities in the ward office.

The report also says Moore, who has long been considered a progressive voice on the council, fired his chief of staff in 2007 and paid him $13,497 more than he should have based on the number of unused sick days the chief of staff could have accumulated.

Khan indicated that his office forwarded the information to the FBI and the Cook County state's attorney. Moore confirmed he has spoken to FBI agents about the allegations, but called them “totally baseless.”

Moore said he paid the two employees for uncompensated overtime and unused vacation days and said he follows strict rules against any political work being done in his ward office. The alderman said both allegations came from the same disgruntled former employee, who he fired because she wasn’t getting along with other workers or performing her duties adequately.

The report comes as the White House said Moore will be honored as “a pioneer for political reform, governmental transparency and democratic governance.” The White House named Moore one of its open government “Champions of Change” for his policy of letting constituents decide how to use part of his budget each year.

That good government award didn’t stop the alderman from ripping Khan as in charge of “an office run amok with a lack of professionalism.”

Aldermen begrudgingly created the legislative inspector general job after then-Mayor Richard M. Daley floated the possibility of giving city Inspector General Joe Ferguson the power to investigate the City Council.

Khan was appointed in late 2011 to a position critics called a sham because aldermen put in place several standards that have to be met before cases can even be opened against them. Among those, people making complaints must identify themselves when accusing aldermen of wrongdoing, opening them up to retribution.

And for Khan’s office to open a case, the Chicago Board of Ethics has to give the go-ahead. The board has not issued a finding of aldermanic wrongdoing in over two decades, even as many council members ended up in prison.

By statute, the legislative inspector general’s report does not name aldermen, but the Tribune verified their identities independently.

Also in Khan’s semi-annual report:

*Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, is alleged to have asked a business owner stop talking to reporters about an incident in which an assistant state’s attorney was arrested on charges of battery for an incident in a Lakeview business. According to a transcript of the message Tunney left for the business owner, Tunney said he was a friend of the prosecutor's defense attorney in the case.

“So let the court do what the court's supposed to do, and please, we don't need theatrics around this issue. It doesn't help your business. You can do what you want to do, but this is just my two cents,” Tunney said, according to the report. The business owner said he felt threatened, according to Khan.

In a statement, Tunney declined to discuss the situation because it has been referred to the ethics board, except to say he will continue to cooperate and is confident he’ll be vindicated.

*Ald. Timothy Cullerton, 38th, is alleged to have ordered police to give tickets to a man who had parked in front of his sister-in-law's garage. Cullerton said police initially wanted to arrest the man for being verbally abusive to him and his sister-in-law, and he told them to instead write the tickets.“I said, 'I don't want to see the guy locked up, but he was parked in front of her garage, and then he parked in a street cleaning zone, so just give him those tickets.' Wouldn't have mattered if it was my sister-in-law or anybody else,” he said.

*Southwest Side Ald. Michael Zalewski, 23rd, is alleged to have inappropriately intervened on behalf of a friend who had been terminated as a Cook County Forest Preserve District police officer because she twice failed a certification test. Zalewski called a forest preserve official and asked if she could take the test again “outside of normal parameters,” the report states.Zalewski said he didn't know whether taking the test again was an option and simply called to ask.

“This was an informational call on behalf of a constituent,” Zalewski said. “I just said 'Is taking it again a possibility?' I didn't know if it was.”*Ald. Proco “Joe” Moreno, 1st, is alleged to have improperly allowed a company to put recycling bins on city property and to put his picture on the side of the bins for free. According to the report, Moreno said he paid for the advertising, but provided no documentation to show that he paid. Moreno declined to comment, saying he hadn't seen the report.

Ald. Joe Moore, seen here during a May City Council hearing, won a White House award for being a reformer Monday, the same day he revealed he talked to FBI agents about allegations from a former employee.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel must come up with at least $754 million in new revenue and budget cuts to balance the city's books, according to preliminary 2016 budget estimates the administration released Friday.

Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee told a group of evangelical and social conservatives on Friday that the economy and security are national concerns but the country can't get back on its feet "until it first gets on its knees and repents" to God over its moral failings.

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